Gil Archer was a man of the world?the high-pressure, high-society world of international finance and diplomacy. Cecilia Vargas, his daughter's riding instructor, was a woman outside that world, but he saw in her the warmth and love his grand estate lacked, and he took it for himself. She had married him for love?he taught her the meaning of ecstasy. But Gil still hadn't learned that love was not something to be acquired and ignored?and the price of the lesson might be the loss of Cecilia.